Bakery owner Hannah Swensen is leaving Lake Eden to help a friend in sunny California. But an unexpected phone call swiftly brings her back to a cold Minnesota winter . . . and murder . . .

When Hannah learns that her sister Michelle’s boyfriend, Detective Lonnie Murphy, is the prime suspect in a murder case, she goes straight from a movie studio sound stage to the Los Angeles airport.

Back in frigid Minnesota, she discovers that proving Lonnie’s innocence will be harder than figuring out what went wrong with a recipe. Lonnie remembers only parts of the night he went out to a local bar and ended up driving a very impaired woman home. He knows he helped her to her bedroom, but he doesn’t recall anything else until he woke up on her couch the following morning. When he went to the bedroom to check on her, he was shocked to discover she was dead.

Hannah doesn’t know what to believe—only that exonerating a suspect who can’t remember is almost impossible, especially since Lonnie’s brother, Detective Rick Murphy, and Lonnie’s partner, Chief Detective Mike Kingston, have been taken off the case. Before everything comes crashing down on Lonnie like a heaping slice of coconut layer cake, it’ll be up to Hannah to rack up enough clues to toast a flaky killer . . .

Coconut Layer Cake Murder Reviews

James

Coconut Later Cake Murder is the 25th book in the Hannah Swensen cozy mystery series by Joanne Fluke. I've read all the books in order, and when the latest showed up at both my library (I got my lendi...

Kim

Phew lawd help me. So many highlights to mention here in my review. So many WTF things!Hannah is back with her special brand of airhead logic. This time around Lonnie is accused of murder and since al...

Monica

WARNING: long and rambling review below. Why do I keep on with a series I’m obviously not enjoying? The answer to this very good question is, like a few other long- runners, this one started out pre...

Kevin

2 starsThis series just isn’t what it used to be. (view spoiler)[Lonnie the suspect Hannah is trying to clear of murder, talks almost as much about food as the circumstances that led to him to be th...

beachbum bookworm

I was so happy when I learned I was returning to Lake Eden! It is one of my favorite places to visit! No sooner then I got there Doc is prescribing a trip for Hannah (get it...prescribing...because he...

Juli

I have been reading the Hannah Swensen series ever since the first book, Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder, came out in 2000! I love the setting, the characters, the recipes, and the light mysteries. Each ...

Dawn Michelle

There is so much that is problematic about this book - while I am glad to be over the whole Ross debacle [mostly anyway], it is like Hannah has seriously lost her mind and is acting like she is 12. WH...

Kate Baxter

3.5 / 5 starsThis 25th installment in author Joanne Fluke's, "Hannah Swensen Mystery" series is a sweet addition to the mix. Although, one might think of it more as a baking cookbook. Roughly a third ...

Kristina

Coconut Layer Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke is the twenty-fifth A Hannah Swensen Mystery. I have read all the books in this series and there is a marked difference between Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder a...

Mark Baker

Hannah Swensen, owner of The Cookie Jar, has been ordered to rest – it came straight from Doc himself. But a trip to California to help a friend pack up is cut short when Hannah’s younger sister, ...

About Joanne Fluke

Like Hannah Swensen, Joanne Fluke grew up in a small town in rural Minnesota where her neighbors were friendly, the winters were fierce, and the biggest scandal was the spotting of unidentified male undergarments on a young widow's clothesline. She insists that there really are 10,000 lakes and the mosquito is NOT the state bird.